You'd like to make Tartine Bread but.....-You haven't bought the book?-Starters scare you? You don't have a starter or don't have time to activate your starter?-The tartine method takes too much time to do all the folds?

Well, here's the lazy man's method.

This loaf was made with IDY, but you can easily make the bread with ADY, poolish, starter, old dough, etc.

Here's the recipe I used for this loaf.

-HG flour 100% You can use BF, AP, 00, or blends. Just adjust your hydration accordingly.-Water 80%-IDY 0.5% for a 24H dough. You can adjust your yeast if you want to shorten or lengthen the fermentation period.-Salt 2% adjust to taste.

The Lazy Man's Method

-In a large bowl or tuperware container, dissolve salt in water, then add yeast and stir. If using ADY then proof the yeast in a bit of warm water first, then add after salt is dissolved. -Dump all the flour into the bowl and quickly stir with a spoon or fork until the dough absorbs the water and is lumpy. Using both one or hands, squeeze the dough between fingers until you have a sticky but even mixture. Try to squeeze out all the lumps. If you need to, then sift your flour. If blending flour, then make sure the two flours are evenly blended before adding it to the water.

A note about hydration: This method works better if you have a moderately hydrated dough. Do not try and make a 95-100% hydration dough using this method, it won't work well. My hydration is 80% but I live in an arid climate and I am using HG flour. If it's easier, just try to match the wetness of your dough to the first picture regardless of what type of flour you are using. Once you've used this method a few times, you can adjust your hydration to what works best for you or what feels right.

-Cover bowl and let the mixture rest for 30m to 1 hour. I used 30m for this loaf. The weaker the flour, the longer the rest period I use.-Now pick up an edge of the wet dough and pull it towards the center and push down. Rotate the bowl and repeat. I do about 20-25 mini folds or until the dough balls up and retains it's ball shape.-After 20-25 mini folds, I'll pull the dough out of the bowl and ball it up like you would pizza dough and then seal the bottom turn it over and place seam side down into your bowl and then immediately into the fridge.

Pic 1 After mixing and squeezing the dough between the fingers to an even sticky mixture.Pic 2 After 30 min rest and 1st mini foldPic 3 4th or 5th mini fold of 25 or so.Pic 4 After 25 mini folds

Anyway, the dough rested overnight until 6am. Before going to work, I repeat the mini folds only doing about 6-7 mini folds this time. The dough has expanded overnight and the gluten structure strengthened by the cold fermentation. There is air in the dough and I don't want to degass the dough. I'm just reshaping/reballing the dough at this point, so I do mini folds and then seal up the dough and turn over so that the top is now the bottom. Then back into the fridge. This step builds a bit more strength into the dough.

This step literally takes 1 min to do. A little longer if you have to take pictures..

Pic 1 is the flattened dough after the 7.5h overnight cold fermentPic 2 is a side shot. As you can tell I used the same container that I mix the dough in, but you can put the dough in a new container if you want. Pic 3 2nd round of mini folds. pic 4 dough reballed and turned overPic 5 side shot of that reballed dough

I got off of work around 4pm today. Before I start my drive home, I ask my lovely wife to take the container out and set it on the counter. You'll want to pull the dough out about 2-3 hours before baking.

Pic 1 I got home (the dough has been sitting out on the counter for about 45m now) and this is what it looks like. Pic 2 side view of proofed up dough coming out of fridgePic 3 Bottom shot

I lightly dust the top and turn the container over and use my fingers to gently coax the dough out. If you are having a hard time getting the dough out, then next time put the reballed dough into a lightly oiled container.

Once the dough is on the counter, I turn it over and use a dough cutter to tuck/push the edges under to form a tall loaf.

At this point you can finish proofing seam side down and covered or you can transfer to a proofing tray (top down, seam side up).

For this loaf, I used a proofing tray.

Pic 4 dough in proofing tray seam side up. This pic was taken before I repinched and resealed the seam while the dough is in the tray.Pic 5 dough turned out, dusted, and slashed

You'll want to bake your bread covered for the first 20m and then uncovered for another 20m or so. You can cover your bread with clay bakers, dutch ovens, metal mixing bowls, a combo cooker, etc. The idea is that the cover traps steam coming off of the bread and keeps the baking environment around the bread moist so that the loaf can rise. You'll get a better rise this way.

For this loaf, I used a metal mixing bowl. For my results, I get seemingly the same results whether I use a metal mixing bowl, my romertopf clay baker, or the combo cooker. No need to buy specialty baking items. Metal mixing bowls are cheap and work just fine.

I typically load the loaf at a stone temp of 500-550F covered, oven temp at 500F for 20m, uncovered at 425F for 20m. I goofed tonight and loaded at a stone temp of 350F, ran the oven at 500 on the dial and baked as usual. Loaf turned out fine.

okay, the important stuff. The crumb... I would say that the bread turned out pretty good for the little time I put into it. I would say a little less than an hour of work including the 30m autolyse (rest period). Now, who doesn't have an hour to make bread?

Chau, you sandbaging sob! You are a natural..... wait a minute, you live up there in the clouds with Bill don't you. Just what on earth goes on up there at 7000 ft, kidding aside, your this thread should be a viral internet sensation. Amazing. Thats the way I like my crumb to, a little tighter than most. -marc

That is a great post. Thank you. For those of us who are REALLY lazy, can you post the amounts you used for this loaf?

Many thanks.

I can and maybe I will on the next loaf. I will weigh things out as usual and pay attention to volumetric measurements BUT anyone who is interested in making pizza and bread at home really needs to learn how to use baker's percents. It is EASY and should take no time to learn at all.

TRR - you are not allowed to be lazier than I!

Here is how the great grandmas probably made bread back in the day (read a long long time ago). Eyeball the amount of water, flour, salt and yeast. Mix to pictured or similiar consistency. Then taste the dough. If it needs more salt, then add more. Allow to ferment and shape accordingly. It should produce great consistent bread everytime. Remember, there were no digital scales back in the day.

I've got this interesting book called Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. That's the laziest method I've come across. I mix up a batch of it every other weekend. there's no kneading. No folding. Just mix it in my kitchen aid pro mixer, let it sit for a couple hours, and throw it in the fridge. When I want fresh artisan type bread, I simply cut off a pound, shape the loaf, rise for 20 mins, and cook for 25 mins.

edited part:Forgot to add that this mixture stays in the fridge for up to weeks. Has a sour dough type characteristic by the end of that 2 weeks. Make a new batch and keep in the old container gets that sour dough taste sooner.